Pre Race: Challenge Venice

A little bit more than 8 hours until the start of Challenge Venice! Daniela is sound asleep, getting as much sleep as possible before her first full distance triathlon. In short:

Everything has gone well (knock on wood)

You should be able to track her at: TDS-live, they have an app of the same name

Her start is on Sunday at 6.33 AM (CET)

Race Course

The course will start at Venice, where they will swim towards the mainland. It is just a straight swim:

The end of the swim is here and looking back you can just see the skyline of Venice. She should be able to maintain a 2.00 min/100 m pace, but with open water swims you never actually now the distance or the conditions before the race itself.

The bike course had to be changed a couple of weeks before the race due to some “safety reasons”. It is now a 7 loop course, where every loop is 22,3k. Although it should be totally flat, there will be no speed records broken on this route…

Daniela will rock with her trusty Felt, with Zipp wheels and handlebars, SRAM 1X11 Drivetrain, TriRig Brakes, Dash Saddle, Garmin Vector pedals and with the traditional bottle set up of 2 cages in the main triangle and one between the arms (BTA) bottle. We tried using the cages behind the saddle, but she did not get comfortable using those, so we played it safe and went with the easier access set up. Bottles in normal cages will have a high calorie mix of gels and water, close to 1000 kcal per bottle and the BTA is for on course water. Her target power is 140-150 watts on the bike, it will be interesting to see what kind of speed will that give her on this course.

The run is a maze in the park where the swim exit and transition area is. Actually this should be very spectator friendly, because you should be able to see your racer multiple times per lap.

Her running pace should be at the start of the marathon 5.30-6.00 min per km, which she will naturally try to hold on until the end.

It will be a hot day here in Venice, but usually that has not been a problem for Daniela. She has worked really hard for this one and training has been going very well since last Autumn. The goal is to get through in one peace and have the best experience possible. We see no reason why that should not happen, but in a iron distance race you never know what the day will bring. She will do her best and a rather large cheerleading group will be with her throughout the day.

Body markings are done, the bike and transition bags have been delivered to the race site. Alarm clock will ring at 2.45 AM, so I better get to sleep…